She was dripping wet from the typical Seattle weather. 'There's something I have to tell you.' Alex paced in the living room, thanking the heavens that Meredith and George had gone to bed already. He couldn't quite take his eyes from the cut across Ava's forehead, fresh and gritty. The blood was gone, but it still looked as if it had been incredibly painful.

'First, I'm sorry, I –' Tears started in Ava's warm, brown eyes as she shook her head.

'Alex, it's not your fault.'

'Yes – yes it is. I told you to stay with the decent guy, I was the one who didn't give you a reason to stay when you begged me to – it was me. I though he was the good guy, I sent you back to him.' Despite his anxiety, he couldn't help noticing that her shit was clinging to her body, breasts defined through the fabric.

'Alex! I don't know who drilled it into your head that you aren't a decent guy, but maybe it's time to slow down long enough to realise that they were wrong. You are a good guy. And I love you, and none of this is your fault.' She touched her fingers to the scar on her head as she spoke.

'Then what…'

'I was at home, with my baby – and he just appeared. He was here, and all I can remember is him scrambling around the house…grabbing his stuff, and then on the way out…I didn't even see it coming! But then once he was gone and I came to…I just couldn't stay there. Not with…' Ava placed the baby in the carrier down near the couch.

'She'll just fall asleep there,' she added, as an afterthought.

'So…I came back to you, you're the only person that I – I just wanted to feel safe. And you make me feel safe, Alex.'

She took a step towards him, and he put both arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a warm, comforting hug. He wanted to tell her that everything would be alright, but he didn't know quite how to say it. She reached up a hand and put it on his cheek. Alex closed his eyes, and noticed the absence of the wedding ring on her finger as Ava pressed her warm hand against his face. He tilted his head back slightly, not exactly sure how things stood between them. Confusion in her eyes, she looked up at him, as if waiting for confirmation. One of them had to make the first move, and he decided that it was going to be him. For once.

Alex took a slow step forward, so that their bodies were pressed together. He reached out a hand to grip her waist, her soft breasts brushing up against his bare chest through her soaking shirt. He couldn't believe how much she affected him, and how fast. Her soft breath swept across his neck, and he could already feel the effects of being so near her in his jeans. He slid his second hand down to the back of her thighs, pulling her still closer until neither of them could take it anymore.

Ava pulled her face towards his, and at the same time his hands found her breasts. Her mouth fell open in a passionate groan from the sensation, and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth, exploring her lips. The two of them kissed lovingly, Alex's hands running through her hair, teasing it into tangles. She stumbled backwards, falling back against the wall, growing breathless and Alex's hands played with the buttons on her shirt; tugging and twisting. Her hands strayed to the waistband of his jeans. Once he had dealt with her shirt, peeling it off her dripping skin, glad that almost none of the technicolour bruising remained on her delicate skin. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he carried her up the stairs and to his bedroom kicking the door shut behind him.

She put both her warm hands on his muscled chest and pushed him back, onto his bed, and then straddled him, settling herself across his pelvis. He put his hands to her jeans, unzipping them, sliding them off over her legs. Dropping her lips to his shoulder, he busied his hands with her bra, struggling with the clasp, pulling it away from her body, moving his mouth to her breasts.

'Alex?' Shit! Meredith was tapping lightly on his door. Ava gasped in surprise, lifting her head. Without moving his head he raised his voice,

'Not now!' Thankfully, she got the hint, probably helped along by the fact that he had chosen that moment to accidentally moan as Ava's hands found the sensitive spot behind his ear.

'OK.'

'Sorry about that,' he lifted his eyes back to her beautiful face...

It was the best sex Alex had ever had in his life. Not even the passionate encounter he had had with Izzie in the closet the day of the bomb at Seattle Grace even came close. And he knew why it was too. In all the movies, all the love stories...it was because he was in love. Truly, undoubtedly, head-over-heels in love.

'Hey,' Ava whispered to him, opening her eyes.

'Hey.' They lay, their bodies almost touching, arms around each other. Alex caught sight of the clock over her head.

'Oh, man, I've got to get to the hospital.' She smiled her half-smile.

'Really?'

'No,' Alex amended, 'I have to get to the hospital soon.' She smiled again, and they lay still in each other's arms. He wondered about what she had been through, first with her memory, then her baby being sick, and then everything with Paul. A though struck him.

'Ava?'

'Mm?'

'What have you named your baby girl?' There was a slight pause.

'I haven't,' she said quietly, staring at Alex's chest, 'I just couldn't think of...' She trailed off, but Alex thought he understood.

'Would you like some help?' he asked, kissing her on the forehead, next to the cut.

'Yes,' she whispered, looking into his eyes.

'OK.'